Fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. But which is more protective—raw or cooked?
Raw Veggies vs. Cooked for Heart Disease
4.3/5 - (22 votes)
In this recent study of 50,000 men and women, those who ate the most apples appeared to have significantly less risk of having a heart attack in the eight years they were followed. But those drinking apple juice appeared to increase their risk. That makes sense. Apples, like all whole plant foods, are packed with fiber, which may lower cholesterol, whereas juice consumption—no fiber, just sugar—has been tied to the risk of diseases like diabetes.
So, nothing new here, but what about this one? 20,000 men and women followed for ten years. An estimated 34% lower risk of coronary heart disease for those with a high intake of fruits and vegetables. But, they went a step further and compared raw versus cooked. No such study, focusing specifically on raw versus processed fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to coronary heart disease incidence, has ever been done, until now. What do you think they found?
Well, in the past we’ve learned that daily salad consumption, for example, may significantly decrease one’s risk of dying from heart disease. In this study of 11,000 vegetarians and other health-conscious people, daily consumption of raw salad was associated with a 26% reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease.
So we know raw is good. At the same time, we’ve known for 15 years that phytonutrients like lycopene, in tomatoes, appear protective against heart disease—and cooking dramatically boosts lycopene bioavailability.
This was actually an interesting study. It’s hard to trust what people tell you about what they eat, so instead, people admitted to the hospital for heart attacks had a plug of fat tissue taken from their butt, and just had it analyzed to basically confirm how much tomato sauce they had really been eating.
So anyway, raw or cooked for heart disease prevention? And you probably guessed it—the answer is both.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Oude Griep LM, Geleijnse JM, Kromhout D, Ocké MC, Verschuren WM. Raw and Processed Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and 10-Year Coronary Heart Disease Incidence in a Population-Based Cohort Study in the Netherlands. PLoS One. 2010 Oct 25;5(10):e13609.
- Hansen L, Dragsted LO, Olsen A, Christensen J, Tjønneland A, Schmidt EB, Overvad K. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of acute coronary syndrome. Br J Nutr. 2010 Jul;104(2):248-55.
- Key TJ, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Burr ML. Dietary habits and mortality in 11,000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up. BMJ. 1996 Sep 28;313(7060):775-9.
In this recent study of 50,000 men and women, those who ate the most apples appeared to have significantly less risk of having a heart attack in the eight years they were followed. But those drinking apple juice appeared to increase their risk. That makes sense. Apples, like all whole plant foods, are packed with fiber, which may lower cholesterol, whereas juice consumption—no fiber, just sugar—has been tied to the risk of diseases like diabetes.
So, nothing new here, but what about this one? 20,000 men and women followed for ten years. An estimated 34% lower risk of coronary heart disease for those with a high intake of fruits and vegetables. But, they went a step further and compared raw versus cooked. No such study, focusing specifically on raw versus processed fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to coronary heart disease incidence, has ever been done, until now. What do you think they found?
Well, in the past we’ve learned that daily salad consumption, for example, may significantly decrease one’s risk of dying from heart disease. In this study of 11,000 vegetarians and other health-conscious people, daily consumption of raw salad was associated with a 26% reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease.
So we know raw is good. At the same time, we’ve known for 15 years that phytonutrients like lycopene, in tomatoes, appear protective against heart disease—and cooking dramatically boosts lycopene bioavailability.
This was actually an interesting study. It’s hard to trust what people tell you about what they eat, so instead, people admitted to the hospital for heart attacks had a plug of fat tissue taken from their butt, and just had it analyzed to basically confirm how much tomato sauce they had really been eating.
So anyway, raw or cooked for heart disease prevention? And you probably guessed it—the answer is both.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Oude Griep LM, Geleijnse JM, Kromhout D, Ocké MC, Verschuren WM. Raw and Processed Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and 10-Year Coronary Heart Disease Incidence in a Population-Based Cohort Study in the Netherlands. PLoS One. 2010 Oct 25;5(10):e13609.
- Hansen L, Dragsted LO, Olsen A, Christensen J, Tjønneland A, Schmidt EB, Overvad K. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of acute coronary syndrome. Br J Nutr. 2010 Jul;104(2):248-55.
- Key TJ, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Burr ML. Dietary habits and mortality in 11,000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up. BMJ. 1996 Sep 28;313(7060):775-9.
Republishing "Raw Veggies vs. Cooked for Heart Disease"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Raw Veggies vs. Cooked for Heart Disease
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
For more on the benefits of whole fruit compared to juice, see my video, Best Fruit Juice. For more on the healthfulness of cooked versus raw veggies, see my video, Best Cooking Method.
Note that most of the sources for this video are open access, so you can download them by clicking on the links in the Sources Cited section above.
For more context, check out my associated blog post, Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
